Crew Clothing to grow store count

Crew Clothing is driving an aggressive store expansion plan following a 12% lift in sales last year.

According to accounts filed at Companies House, the British casual clothing retailer grew sales to £6.5m for the year ending 26 October 2014, albeit operating profits dropped to £1.06m from £1.3m the previous year. The company made a loss of £106,828 in contrast to a pre-tax profit of £226,846 in 2013.

Currently, Crew clothing trades from 76 UK outlets in addition to concessions in British department store chain John Lewis. According to The Telegraph, the brand cited investment in its online business as the reason behind the lag in profits.

“The expectations of our customer are changing rapidly and therefore we continue to invest in the key areas of infrastructure in order to provide a high quality of service,” said a spokesperson. “This ongoing investment will provide the platform for the future growth of the business with logistics and information technology being strengthened during the year.”

Last year Crew Clothing restructured its management team, which resulted in the replacement of Chief Exec Octavia Morley with former joules Chairman and FatFace CEO Louise Barnes.

In 2014, the UK enjoyed the opening of just one new store opening but Crew‘s Finance Director Justin Hampshire has outlined intent to introduce between 10 and 15 stores over the next few years.